Brain Implant to Explore Consciousness

Technology Review : "Bill Newsome, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, has spent the last twenty years studying how neurons encode information and how they use it to make decisions about the world. In the 1990s, he and collaborators were able to change the way a monkey responded to its environment by sending electric jolts to certain parts of its brain. The findings gave neuroscientists enormous insight into the inner workings of the brain.

But Newsome is obsessed with a lingering question: How does consciousness arise from brain function? He feels the best way to answer that question is by implanting an electrode into his own brain -- and seeing how the electric current changes his perception of the world."

One step beyond what Kevin Warwick is doing, into the emerging field of "cognotechnology."

Kevin Warwick

Home Page: "Kevin has carried out a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer in order to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. He has been successful with the first extra-sensory (ultrasonic) input for a human and with the first purely electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans."

Kevin's research obviously has great potential for restoring sensation and mobility in patients with damage to the nervous system; equally obvious are the ethical and social issues that arise. "Kevin is currently working closely with Dr Daniela Cerqui, a social and cultural anthropologist to address the main social, ethical, philosophical and anthropological issues related to his research into robotics and cyborgs."

A Wheelchair that Reads Your Mind

Wired News: "Patients who suffer from disease or injury that leave them unable to move have little hope of independent mobility. But that may be about to change. Researchers are developing a thought-controlled robotic wheelchair.

Spanish scientists have begun work on a new brain-computer interface, or BCI, capable of converting thought into commands that a wheelchair can execute."

Skinning Reality

Most people are familiar with the idea of virtual reality -- any technology which allows people to perceive and interact with a computer-simulated environment. Real world examples range from flight simulators to virtual roller coasters; while fictional examples include The Matrix and Star Trek's Holodeck.

A related concept (and to me more interesting) is augmented reality, which combines elements of the real world with computer-generated overlays. Again there are real-world examples -- my favorite is the Cadillac Night Vision system, which uses thermal imaging to supplement what the driver sees on the road ahead. And there's no shortage of fictional uses of AR -- remember the scene in Minority report where Tom Cruise is subjected to interactive ads at the Gap ("Good afternoon, Mr. Yakamoto; How did you like that three-pack of tank tops you bought last time you were in?")

Working at Cycorp many years ago, I remember hearing Doug Lenat speculate about the day when we would each select what version of reality we'd like to see. If you really like the Flintstones, why not see the other cars on the road as if they were Flintstones cars? As long as you can see where the other cars are and how fast they're going, why does it matter what they look like to you? Kind of like a skinned software MP3 player -- as long as you see controls for 'play,' 'stop,' 'next song,' 'previous,' etc., who cares what they look like? (Actually, you care, which is the whole point of skinning!)

Vernor Vinge does a great job of fleshing out the idea, calling it consensual imaging. It plays an important role in his most recent novel Rainbow's End, and he referred to it in a recent address at the Austin Game Conference. Lord of the Rings fan? Why not superimpose LOTR images over the buildings, people, and animals that you see? Add faces and legs to the trees; houses can look like the Shire; people of short stature can be further squished into hobbits, while pointy ears turn lithe folks into elves. With a flip of a virtual switch, the annoying guy at work becomes Gollum -- you can even skin his voice! And best of all, you can share the fantasy with other LOTR fans.

Too geeky for you? It doesn't have to be LOTR -- that's the beauty of skins. You get to choose. Put a beach outside your city window, with swaying palm trees instead of icy cell-phone towers. Turn the sterile cubicles in your office into the huts in an Irish hamlet. A flower box here... a mossy rock there... the break room becomes O'Finnegan's pub. Make your coworkers more attractive (or less attractive!) Come home to a Frank Lloyd Wright home perched over a mountain stream, rather than a rusty old van down by the river. The possibilities are endless!

And you don't have to limit it to visual input. Take something like the Bose noise-canceling headphones, and selectively cancel just those noises you don't want. Replace them with something else. A hundred taxis with honking horns become cows gently mooing. Silence everyone else's cell phones and crying children, while still hearing your own.

And smells? Make cow manure smell like lilacs if you choose. It is a bit harder, but there are people working on it.

How about proprioception? Make your morning commute feel like a roller coaster ride. That's hard too -- maybe nano-devices to manipulate the cilia and kinocilia directly?

Ahh, the possibilities seem endless. I'll have to come back to this theme.

'Sputnik moment' needed for Computer Science

Bill Gates: "'When I think about different areas of activity, really to me other than some neat stuff in biology, it's hard to think of a domain that's going to change the world one-hundredth as much as advanced software will in the decades ahead.'"

I'm convinced that one of the reasons that CS programs have seen declining enrollment in recent years is because students aren't properly seeing how computing technology will continue to transform almost every aspect of our lives. Medicine, Economics, Politics, Entertainment, Education, Manufacturing, and even Construction are all undergoing radical changes because of developing technologies.

Declining CS enrollment might also be linked to the perception that CS majors develop technical expertise at the expense of 'soft skills.' Employers increasingly look for candidates with a broad education: effective writing skills, leadership, public communication all contribute to job success. The solution then isn't to avoid technical majors, but rather to transform their curricula to develop a broad set of skills. "Humane Computing" might be an apt term.

The perfect place to develop these new models for CS education is at colleges and universities that have a strong foundation in liberal arts and general education. The computer scientists who will lead in the future should not only have the technical skills to design and implement new technologies; they should have a solid foundation in history, sociology and ethics, so they can evaluate the impact of such technologies on individuals and societies. They should be well grounded in sociology, art, and psychology, to design humane interfaces that are accessible and pleasant to the people who use them. And they should be broadly educated in a variety of disciplines, so that they can find applications for technology that they are both knowledgeable and passionate about.